[sickoflibs]

RE:”I’ve seen remarks about such a powder maybe a couple of times, but cannot figure out what kind of solid chemical would be able to react with water to produce ethanol, at least one which isn’t pretty noxious in its own right. Ethanol itself is incorrigibly liquid at room temperature.”

I have wondered this myself so I googled it,
Many pages say its liquid alcohol encapsulated in a material that dissolves in water, also read that Japan was able to do it in the 1970s.

[clearcarbon]

"Many pages say its liquid alcohol encapsulated in a material that dissolves in water, also read that Japan was able to do it in the 1970s."

I recall those old articles about the Japanese version identifying the encapsulation material as gelatin.